sicheng and doyoung followed the two demons to the canteen, where they sat at a random table.

jaehyun immediately pulled out the lunchbox that he had had prepared for doyoung (who didn't eat meat), making doyoung thank him under sicheng's stare.

"how come he has a personalized meal?" sicheng asked, looking at his own tray on which was resting a meal very poor in vegetables.

"jaehyun is whipped for him, i told you." yuta whispered in his ear.

"huh. and so, i need to eat that shit?" sicheng raised a brow, eyeing the piece for bleeding meat that was in his plate.

"meat tastes good, you know?" yuta continued – there was no need to expect an answer from the two other boys, because they were too caught in the moment to care anyway.

"eating an animal is disgusting. you killed a poor living being and thew him on the stove just for your pleasure." sicheng explained with a disgusted face, seeing yuta eating a piece of steak.

"in the human realm, you only eat vegetables, who are living beings too. so, you are murderers as much as we are." yuta shrugged, making sicheng gasp in realisation.

"oh my god, you're right!" he exclaimed. "we eat living beings... just like you..."

yuta chuckled silently at the panicked face sicheng has on.

he was cute getting worried over such a small thing.

"here." yuta rolled his eyes playfully, using his fork to pick a small piece of juicy meat in his plate, and then placing it in front of sicheng's mouth. "taste it."

"what?! eww! no way i'm tasting this!" sicheng said, utterly disgusted.

"come on." yuta poked sicheng's lips with the piece of meat. "open your mouth. i swear it's not bad."

"hmm hmm..." sicheng shook his head from left to right, keeping his mouth shut not to allow yuta to slide the piece of meat in.

seeing that sicheng wouldn't give in and that the two other boys were too caught up in whatever they were talking about to care, yuta got an idea.

still keeping the fork in front of sicheng's mouth, he allowed his other hand to pass under the table and slid it across sicheng's thigh, making the human look down at his lap.

yuta smirked, choosing this exact moment to grip his thigh hard, making sicheng let out a strange noise – between a cry of pain and a moan – and opening his mouth widely. this allowed yuta to slip the fork inside sicheng's mouth and drop the piece of meat there.

"ahhh!" sicheng whined, getting ready to spit the piece of meal back in his plat if it wasn't for yuta slamming his hand over his mouth to prevent him to do so.

"swallow." he said in a low voice.

sicheng obliged, his eyes locked with yuta's dark ones as he reluctantly munched on the squishy piece of meat before swallowing it.

and to his greatest surprise, it wasn't that bad.

"it's actually good!" he said, rather surprised. "can i have another taste?"

yuta smiled, cutting another piece of meat with his utensils to feed sicheng who this time, opened his mouth voluntarily.

next to them, both doyoung and jaehyun were staring at their interaction strangely.

"your best friend is very whiny." jaehyun noticed.

"yeah. and he's even whinier when he's around boys he likes." doyoung nodded. "it's his way of showing love, i guess."

"he might like yuta a lot then. he's always whining around him." jaehyun said.

"he finds him very hot. and i guess he took a liking in him." doyoung approved.

"yuta likes being around sicheng. he told me it was cool having someone to hang out with him because you had stolen me from him." jaehyun explained.

this made doyoung blush.

it's true that since he had been 'kidnapped', doyoung had spent the majority of his time glued to jaehyun – to the point he had started crushing on him.

yuta might have felt lonely, seeing jaehyun and him getting this close.

but now, sicheng was there for him, thankfully.

"i'm sorry..." doyoung apologised.

jaehyun raised a brow, quite confused. "what for?"

"for taking you away from yuta." doyoung replied. "he's your best friend."

"don't apologise for that..." jaehyun chuckled. "best friends don't necessary have to stay together forever. one day, we all need to find our other half."

"are you searching for them?" doyoung asked, his heart uneasy at the idea of jaehyun finding someone that wasn't him.

"i am." jaheyun nodded. "and i think i found them."

"really?" doyoung asked, trying to seem enthusiastic but failing miserably. "who are them?"

"someone i spend a lot of time with." jaehyun replied, resting his chin on top of his palm as he smiled at the oblivious human.

"it's not fair... i can't know who it is because you've spent all your time with me since i'm here..."doyoung pouted.

jaehyun chuckled at the boy's cuteness.

"then, maybe, there's something you're missing..."

♨/❄

"how is your nose, doyoungie?" the human's mother asked after taking a sip of water.

"it's better, i think..." doyoung replied, his eyes squinting to look at the cast that was still resting on the bridge of his nose.

"be careful next time." his father warned. "i'm not sure you'd enjoy getting crowned with such a bandage on your nose." he added with a laugh.

"darling, you can't foresee an accident. normally, you never fall down the stairs on purpose." doyoung's mother laughed as well.

"yeah, but at least, you could have put your hands in front of you not to hit your pretty face." her husband replied, looking at his son.

doyoung sighed. "i told you i was holding a ton of books in my arms. i had nothing to catch me..." he lied.

there was no way doyoung would tell his parents how this injury really happened.

he could get killed if he did – well, maybe not killed, but punished.

it was better to make it pass as a fall in the stairs at school.

"anyway." the king of the human realm coughed. "i saw three demons on our realm today. they don't seem to understand that our realms are separated for a reason."

"if this keeps going, we'll need to do a trial to the demon realm." the queen told with a huff.

"violence is the only way for them to understand." her husband continued.

doyoung, who had been silent even since his lie, decided it was time to intervene.

"huh... doing a trial?" he asked. "isn't this a bit too much?"

"it's never too much for demons." his mother replied.

"they don't understand the rules we set in place." his father added.

"maybe they want something to happen and they're trying to find a way to ask us?" doyoung proposed, making both of his parents look at him.

the heir gulped.

maybe he shouldn't have said that.

his parents didn't like demons, his grandparents didn't like them either, and so did his great-grandparents.

it had been like this for a long time, and they didn't intend to change it.

but doyoung knew the background of the décor.

he knew the demon realm.

he knew the demon heir.

and he knew how kind and trustworthy these people were.

there was no need hating them.

as jaehyun and yuta had explained, a reunion of the two realms would help both parties.

but it seemed like his parents were too narrowminded to understand any of this.

"i spit nonsense." doyoung shrugged. "i'll head to bed, i'm a bit tired."

and with that, he left the dinner table, his heart aching at the thought of never being able to get with jaehyun, even if the demon came to like him...